Orcs

Orcs are the forgotten children of the last age, a once-young race entering their maturity with the loss of a great kingdom that united their kind in service to their Gods and Lords - now scattered in isolation or living in tribal savagery under the wing of Dragons. For many races, the foretold cataclysm is only yet to come; but for the orcs it has long since ravaged them.

Civilized Orcs dot the land in small communes, often occupying small forts or monasteries as they come to grips with the irreparable loss their people have experienced. Many devote themselves to perfecting their martial efforts, erupting in a variety of fighting styles and new weapons that attract travelers from all over. Many others travel the world, venturing from their diminishing communities and integrating into those few societies that will have them.

The orcs that remain behind, however, suffer this loss in increasing degeneration. They have fallen faster than any other race could have, becoming naught but mindless, savage beasts torn between their various tribes and Dragon-Gods.

History

Among the first of Rang's creations, the Orcs were an unfinished project of Rang's which she had molded from clay and mud and later abandoned. After the figures stood unmolested for decades, it was the rise of Zhyr's son, Sol, into the sky that gave solidity to their form, and ignited within them the spark of life.

The first Orcs were crude tribals that depended on primitive tools and primeval pragmatism to endure the terrors of the land they found themselves in. Fleeing the hostile jungles surrounding the domain of Latra, they purportedly fled to the deserts of what is now known as the Cardumite Dominion, taking refuge in the crags of the southern mountain ranges where they lived in relative peace for a time.

Following the fall of Latra during the first cataclysm, the Orcs remained largely unaware of the events unfolding across the world, protected by the isolating terrain of their new homeland. It was not until the giant races fled south that the Orcs had come into contact with another sapient race, and the giants, whose militaristic culture, insurmountable strength, an superior arms proved too great to resist, quickly subjugated them as tributaries and slaves.

While the Orcs enjoyed relative security in exchange for labor and tithes under the giants, they would eventually be conscripted in droves at the onset of the War of the Four Kings. Used as cannon fodder by the giants, the extended conflict saw their kind almost entirely eradicated. Following the collapse of the Giant Empire and the second cataclysm, the orcs were left in a tenuous position even worse than when they had arrived in the southern mountains, and in order to preserve the existence of their blood and culture, evolved an insulated, xenophobic tribal network of clans and military orders that defines their people to this day.

The First Orcs

Among the first batch of Orcs to receive life were two males rumored to be named Odha and Rima, who took immediately to organizing the few of their number and setting about the first Orcish settlement of Erin, the location of which has been lost to time, but was said to lie beyond the boundary of Latra to the south. It has been said that the Orcs faced great difficulty in this land, and that the domain of Erin was a hostile and treacherous jungle where fervent diseases and slithering monstrosities preyed upon the young Orcs during their first few generations.

It is said that while Odha urged his kinsmen to remain and endure the troubles of their birthplace, Rima proved more convincing in persuading the remaining Orcs to venture south in search of more secure lands. Orcish folklore states that this difference of opinion led to a small but widening divide that eventually strained the relationship between the two brothers and rent them apart.

The exodus from Erin proved costly and difficult, with nearly half the Orcs' number being lost along the Palradri, known in the common tongue as the trail of marks or sometimes as the path of trials. Most stories comprising the collective mythos of the Orcs stem from this stage of their history, particularly those pertaining to teachings of morality, enduring hardship, survival, and cautionary tales.